Virginia 27, Louisville 3
The Cavaliers played their most complete game against ACC competition in years Saturday at home, crushing the Cardinals in what was nearly a shutout. Louisville's points came on a short field, and the 'Hoos wasted some early scoring opportunities, so the score wasn't really indicative of the dominating nature of the victory. It could have been an even bigger margin.
Some of the great feelings from the win were dampened Monday when coach Bronco Mendenhall said junior starting linebacker Jordan Mack is out about six weeks with an injury. Late in the game when it was pretty much decided, unfortunately, Mack helped on a tackle and came off the field favoring his shoulder. Most people seemed to think it was a stinger, and he was going to be fine. But apparently that is not the case.
Saturday was Mack's 26th start at Virginia. He announced his arrival with a bone-crunching sack of
Duke QB Daniel Jones that resulted in a safety in Durham in 2016. He was third on the team last
season with 114 tackles behind Quin Blanding and Micah Kiser. He's been valuable this season playing Kiser's role and calls out lots of signals on defense. He hasn't been piling up the tackles at quite the same rate as last season, with 20 in four games (which equates to 60 in 12 games), but that is probably because the defense as a whole has been getting better, and there are fewer tackles to go around as the team gets more quick stops.
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| Jordan Mack's 20 tackles are fourth on the team through four games. |
This is a pretty big loss, as the Wahoos will miss Mack's instincts and smarts in the middle. He has lots of experience in this defense. If he is out six weeks, that would be the next five games: at N.C. State, bye week, vs. Miami, at Duke, vs. North Carolina, vs. Pittsburgh.
The good news for Virginia is it has had young players stepping up this season, especially on that side of the ball. Malcolm Cook is still out at the other inside linebacker spot, and sophomore Zane Zandier has done a better-than-expected job of filling in there the past two games. Against the Cardinals, he came up with eight tackles, including one for loss. He was integral in UVa stopping Louisville inside the 3 on three straight run plays to force them into a field goal in the third quarter. Sophomore Robert Snyder and senior C.J. Stalker are among the 'backers who will see more time with Mack out. Snyder has yet to register a tackle, but I at least recall seeing him play against Indiana. I'm not sure if Stalker -- who has one of the best LB names ever -- has played, but he has been valuable on the sideline for the defense. Mendenhall said he has joked with him that he needs him to be a graduate assistant next year, and it should not even be a choice for him. So coaching might be in Stalker's future, but he will need to step up on the field right now.
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| DE Richard Burney had eight tackles, including two for losses, and a forced fumble in three games. |
Also on the injury front, defensive end Richard Burney, who I mentioned made a nice play against Ohio, did not play in the Louisville game, and Mendenhall said he is out for the year as well with a medical issue. Mandy Alonso has seen lots of time and started for Burney on Saturday. He did a good job on the goal-line stand as well. Redshirt freshman Tommy Christ is now on the depth chart at that end spot behind Alonso. Aaron Faumui is a true freshman who has been getting time on the other side behind the versatile Eli Hanback and had a sack Saturday.
Now on to some more positive observations from Saturday's whipping. So many good things happened. I'm sure I won't get to them all:
We've seen flashes from Bryce Perkins, and he told the nation "hello" with a pair of hurdles. With Virginia up 6-3 in the middle of the third quarter, Perkins sidestepped a defender and took off up the middle, blowing past a couple of more defenders. We saw his awareness, elusiveness, and then speed. Then he displayed his amazing athleticism when he leaped over a defender, a play that landed him at No. 7 on "SportsCenter's" top 10 plays. In total, it was a 36-yard gain that put Virginia at the Louisville 15, setting up UVa's first touchdown, a play-action rollout pass to Chris Sharp. It was a big moment in the game, and let's also not overlook the nice pass up the seam to tight end Evan Butts just before that on third-and-8. Without that completion and first down, the hurdle play wouldn't have happened. It was a good pass by Perkins, and Butts took a hard shot but held on to the ball.
Perkins was very accurate again. The junior finished 17 of 24 for 197 yards, two TDs, and one
pick, which wasn't his fault. I remember at least two dropped passes, one by Hasise Dubois and one by Olamide Zaccheaus, who deflected the ball to Rodjay Burns, who picked it off and took it back to the 3. Perkins did a great job hustling, with a bad finger, to tackle Burns before he scored. That allowed the defense to make its stand and hold Louisville to a field goal.
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| Bryce Perkins went airborne twice Saturday and again impressed with his passing accuracy. |
Perkins' touchdown pass to Joe Reed was a thing of beauty. Up 13-3 early in the fourth quarter on a third-and-14, Perkins saw he was facing a blitz and seemed to audible to a different play. He lofted a beautiful pass over the middle to Reed, who took it the rest of the distance for a nail-in-the-coffin, 44-yard touchdown. Perkins' smarts really showed on that play, as he knew Reed would be getting a one-on-one look. Perkins later added another insurance touchdown in which he hurdled another defender at the goal line to score to cap a remarkable day.
Speaking of that bad finger, how about the poise of Brennan Armstrong? Perkins briefly came out after dislocating his right pinkie finger on the trick play, and Armstrong entered the game with Virginia up 3-0 in the second quarter facing a third-and-2. What did he do? He calmly executed a draw play and ran for 34 yards, setting up Virginia's second field goal. Armstrong is just a true freshman, but he looked collected in the Richmond game in garbage time, and then in a tight contest against an ACC team, he looked just as cool. That's a great sign once Perkins moves on in a couple years. Right now, Armstrong would be the next man up, and his audition has been going well so far.
Speaking of field goals, has UVa found a more consistent kicker? A.J. Meija missed another short one against Ohio, so Mendenhall reopened the competition in practice. Apparently, Meija won the competition, because he trotted out for UVa's first attempt from 32 yards Saturday, but immediately shanked it. After that, Mendenhall had seen enough, so he put in Hunter Pearson. He made two short ones, from 28 yards and then 24. I would leave him in until he at least misses two in a row from 30 yards or fewer. There are some good players on the roster, and the staff has brought in some solid talent across the board. It's unfathomable, then, that a kicker who can consistently make short field
goals isn't on the team. Hopefully, Pearson will actually turn out to be that guy.
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| Charles Snowden (11) recorded his first career INT Saturday. |
Charles Snowden was a monster. With the game still scoreless early in the second quarter, Snowden, an outside linebacker, reached out his long arms (he's 6-7) and snagged a Malik Cunningham pass out of the air and rumbled all the way to the Louisville 32, setting up Virginia's first scoring drive. Snowden added eight tackles, 1.5 for losses, a sack, a pass breakup, and a fumble recovery (after the Faumui sack) on the day. He was named ACC linebacker of the week for his breakout performance. It was an exciting day for Snowden, who Mendenhall indicated is probably just scratching the surface on his potential.
Bryce Hall held on to an interception. Louisville was driving down 13-3 in the third quarter when Juwon Pass through a terrible pass into coverage, and Hall easily picked it off and ran 19 yards to Virginia's 38-yard line. It wasn't the biggest moment of the game, but I'm glad he snagged it this time. I still think he will come up with a key interception this season, as I was hoping for in my previous blog post.
This was exactly the outing Virginia needed. It held serve at home against an ACC team when it was a favorite. It was a very, very solid performance, and there were still things that could've been cleaned up. The road gets tougher the next two weeks with a trip to N.C. State before a bye week and then home game against Miami. That's why this win was so important.
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